Turnovers too costly as Gore ends Crescent run in quarters
CRESCENT’S Tanner Rice (8) had a rushing touchdown in his team’s loss last Friday to Gore. Rice rushed for 27 yards and also had two catches for 13 yards for the Tigers, who saw their season end with a 10-2 record. [Photo by Brad Stone/www.bestone. sh
J.L. Fisher would prefer his team have a bad outing early in the season.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, such an occurrence took place last Friday in Harrah.
Crescent’s season came crashing to a halt with a 69-13 loss to undefeated Gore at the neutral site in the Class A quarterfinals.
The Pirates forced six Crescent turnovers. Five of them were interceptions, three of which were returned for touchdowns.
“When it started to go bad, it just snowballed the rest of the game,” said Crescent coach J.L. Fisher after his team wrapped up a 10-2 season.
“It was just a bad time to have a bad game.”
Things certainly snowballed. The teams were tied 7-7 at 3:44 of the first quarter after the Tigers’ Kade Varner hit C.J. Wilson for a 15-yard touchdown pass.
But, by the end of the quarter, Crescent trailed 20-7 after Gore scored on a touchdown run, then picked off a Varner pass just seconds later for another TD.
Tanner Rice got the Tigers back within 20-13 at 10:18 of the second quarter as he found the end zone from 5 yards out.
“Other than the interception, we scored on our first two drives and we were really moving the ball well on them,” Fisher said.
But the Pirates were also able to move the ball on Crescent.
The Pirates scored twice more on offense and then got their second pick-six of the half.
With 4:45 to go in the second quarter, they led 41-13.
They got their third interception return for a TD to start the third quarter.
“We just couldn’t overcome all the turnovers,” Fisher said.
Gore ran for 222 yards and threw for another 112.
“I’ll give them credit. They’re good in all three phases,” Fisher said of the Pirates, who improved to 13-0.
“They’ve got 22 seniors and it showed.”
Crescent countered with 166 rushing yards on 41 attempts.
Wilson had 49 on his 10 carries while Luke Descher garnered 42 yards on just seven attempts.
Wilson also led the team with three catches for 35 yards.
The Tiger defense was led by Stone Fisher’s five
Gore 69 Crescent 13
Score by quarter: Gore 20 21 21 7 - 69 Crescent 7 6 0 0 - 13 Scoring summary: G - Aidan Dickerson 71 pass from Noah Cooper (Ben Kirkpatrick kick) C - C.J. Wilson 15 pass from Kade Varner (Varner kick) G - Bladin McCartney 5 run (Kirkpatrick kick) G - Dayne Perryman INT return (kick fail) C - Tanner Rice 5 run (kick fail) G - Perryman 34 run (Kirkpatrick kick) G - Jackson Duke 19 pass from Tyler Lane (Kirkpatrick kick) G - Duke INT return (Kirkpatrick kick) G - Riley Huff INT return (Kirkpatrick kick) G - Cooper 17 run (Kirkpatrick kick) G - Cooper 15 run (Kirkpatrick kick) G - McCartney 19 pass from Tate Brooksher (Kirkpatrick kick)
Gore
Game stats
Crescent
14 First downs 22 22-222 Rushing a-yds 41-166 112 Passing yds 77 4-4-0 Passing c-a-i 8-16-5 0-0 Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0 Punts-avg. 2-41.0 4-33 Penalties-yds 4-30 tackles. Descher had four.
With the win, Gore advanced to take on Hominy in the state semifinals. That game will be played Friday night at Jenks.